Evaluating the Modern Stocked Pistol: USW-320 at Desert Brutality 2022
46This year I was able to shoot Desert Brutality twice - one during the normal match and once the day before as part of "Trooper" division. That's where you carry all of your gear for the whole match (including food and all ammo) through all of the stages, shoot the whole match in one day, and don't get to use anything you didn't bring with you in the morning.
I figured this would be a good opportunity to try out the Brugger & Thomet USW-320. It's a SIG 320 pistol (registered as an SBR, for legality) in a B&T grip module with a folding stock; really a modern incarnation of the classic stocked-pistol concept. The match this year had no shooting longer than 200 yards, and much of it was done in 50 yard pistol bays. So I figured I could get a good challenge with the long-range stages, but should be able to complete everything else reasonably well. So, let's see if I was right!
0:20 - Introduction
2:02 - Stage 1
6:08 - Stage 2
10:18 - Stage 3
12:08 - Stage 4
14:47 - Stage 5
17:10 - Stage 6
19:11 - Stage 7
20:43 - Conclusions
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About Forgotten Weapons
At Forgotten Weapons I think the most interesting guns out there are the most obscure ones. I try to search out experimental and prototype weapons and show you how they work.
Great video! It is really interesting to see where the stocked pistol shines, as well as its limitations. I think that match was a perfect environment for the test, as the longer range stuff was still within the realm of full sized PCCs.
Did you have cycling issues with the compensator?
Crap, I forgot me mention that...I took it off because it was uncomfortably loud, even with earpro.
I'm curious. Would a stocked naval or artillery luger with their longer fixed barrels have had better performance?
The Luger is also recoil operated; it doesn't have a fixed barrel.
My bad, I’d forgotten that the barrel recoiled a wee bit. However, I would still be very interested in a comparative shoot between your USW-320 and stocked lugers of various barrel lengths to see the differences in performance. Forgotten Weapons and C&Rsenal are well overdue a new collaboration. The next time you are in his postcode, you could challenge Othias to a competition between your USW-320 and that PCC thingy Othias is so fond of (also I seem to recall Othias mentioning something about a stocked 1911 build). Perhaps Othias could reborrow the stocked Lugers he used previously to allow a comparative shoot to be conducted at the same time.
A collaboration between Forgotten Weapons and C&Rsenal investigating the relative usefulness (or uselessness) of various type of stocked pistols and PCC’s along the lines of Project Lightening would be very interesting. I do recall you said in your recent Q&A that funding was the main issue preventing this. But, that is a failure of a specific financing model - the “honesty box” model – i.e. trusting people to pay out when they can view the content for free. Adopt a pay up-front model instead by doing a Kickstarter campaign to finance such collaborations would prevent the collaborators losing out on their return on investment. If the finance goal isn’t met then nothing happens and nobody is under any obligations.
Personally, I would expect such a single such Kickstarter campaign to raise enough funds for up to at least three such collaborations (my expectations being one collaboration per year and not all three in short order). If Forgotten Weapons and C&Rsenal don’t have between them 1,000 subscribers that would be willing to contribute an average of $50 each to such projects, I would be extremely surprised (and very disappointed). I am far from financially comfortable myself, but I would be willing to contribute up to $100 to such a Kickstarter campaign.
Hopefully you will see this reply and consider my suggestion and perhaps discuss it with Othias and Mae. I really liked Project Lightening and have been long hoping for similar such collaborations.
Surely a fixed-barrel pistol could perform better; why don't we see those any more?
Well, the only fixed barrel pistols I can think of are revolvers, break actions (neither the most conducive to a match environment), and blowbacks (which are chambered for smaller calibers which will have issues with range and impact energy).
Ubiquity of refined browning action.
Big they do exist. Mostly in blowback calibers. 22, 380, 5.7, 9mm mak.
Or oversized blowback pistols in common calibers, i.e. high point.
There are fixed barrel delayed pistols such as laugo alien that would be ideal.
I'm liking the minimalist addons for this pistol, it's holsterable, stocked and sighted, and seems to me like a good upgrade for a pistol that still could be consealable, comparable to carbines.
Today, Ian rediscovers why the stocked pistol was designed and, subsequently, has fallen out of military use.
It would be interesting to see the concept tried with a system like the Alien.
5,7x28 mm would perfectly match your build and 7.5 FK could be even better, using this cartridges and the principles of cheek wielding is going to make a marvelous video to watch.
Maybe a more tight finished pistol (meaning more expensive), plus a longer barrel can help over 100 meters. But what would really help is a more potent cartridge, as someone else suggested already.
Would be interesting to see how a gas delayed blowback pistol would do in a role like this. I think something like a walther CCP or HK P7 (Please for the love of all that's holy no one butcher a P7 to test this) would be great because of the fixed barrel.
"My Browning shoots sub 1 MOE" some dude somewhere who cant proof it.
Use a pistol with fixed barrel and non reciprocating rifle style red dot with a chassis like this. I.e. a flux brace on a laugo alien.
What happened to your two port muzzle brake? Problems with a changing point of impact?
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